fukushima-map

More radioactive water flows into Pacific Ocean after drainage canal overflows at Fukushima nuclear plant

C OCEAN AFTER DRAINAGE CANAL OVERFLOWS AT FUKUSHIMA NUCLEAR PLANT

Severe Tropical Storm Nangka brought strong winds and heavy rains as it made landfall over western Japan on July 16, 2015. Approximately 360,000 people in nearby towns were advised to evacuate and seek shelter. To make matters worse, the heavy rain from the tropical storm caused a drainage channel at the Fukushima power plant to overflow with radioactive water and spill into the sea.

The Fukushima Daiichi power plant can’t get a break. It was struck by a tsunami in March 2011, which caused three nuclear reactors to melt and unleash hundreds of tons of radioactive material into the ocean. The radioactive water from the drainage channel contributes even more waste to the Pacific Ocean.

Water is constantly being pumped into the reactors in order to keep the melted fuel cool. The contaminated water has been leaking into both the ocean and groundwater for over four years.

Tepco in a catch-22

The Tokyo Electric Company (TEPCO), the company in charge of the Fukushima plant, is in a catch-22 in regard to how they should store the contaminated water. Fishermen do not want them to dump the contaminated water into the ocean, which is contaminating marine life. On the other hand, if TEPCO lets the water evaporate, it will condense into rain and contaminate the ocean anyway. Because of this, the company has constructed hundreds of tanks to store the contaminated water. Even TEPCO admits, however, that they are running out of space to store all the water.

Once again, TEPCO was unable to prevent radioactive water from contaminating the sea. The overflow was discovered around 8:40 AM on Thursday, the day that Nangka made landfall. TEPCO tested rainwater samples from the leak two hours after it was discovered. According to a report from NHK WORLD News in Japan, which has since been edited to censor information, the results showed that the rainwater had 830 becquerels per liter of radioactive cesium, which is above government safety levels.

At 5:00 PM, the drainage channel was still overflowing. TEPCO officials report that they are unable to take care of the leak any time soon, since they are busy monitoring the density of radioactive materials. Officials believe that heavy rain has washed radioactive mud and soil away from the plant.

Meanwhile, Japan’s Meteorological Agency warns that the country can expect more rainfall, flooding, mud slides and tidal waves. Approximately 217 flights were cancelled Thursday, and 126 flights cancelled on Friday. Traffic has been severely disrupted in Japan too.

Fukushima poses threat to Tokyo’s water supply

Some of the expressways in Tokyo have been closed due to heavy rains. Fukushima is a mere 140 miles north of Tokyo. Many residents have expressed concern that the activities going on at Fukushima may effect Tokyo.

Tokyo is one of the most densely populated cities in the world, containing approximately 13 million people.

The aquifer beneath the Daiichi plant is connected to other aquifers, including one that is a source of drinking water in Tokyo. The plume of radiation beneath the plant has the potential to contaminate public water supplies, including Tokyo’s.

This isn’t the first time Tokyo has experienced a public water scare. After the tsunami in 2011, the Fukushima disaster caused Tokyo’s tap water to exceed safety levels for infants. The radiation levels were 210 becquerels of iodine-131 per liter of water, which is twice the recommended limit for infants. Despite these concerns, the Japanese government insisted that the radiation in tap water did not pose a threat to public health.

When it rains at the Fukushima power plant, it pours in more ways than one. The overflow from the drainage channel is another challenge among many to face the Fukushima site.

Sources include:

http://www.japantimes.co.jp

http://www3.nhk.or.jp

http://www3.nhk.or.jp

http://www.rense.com

http://govtslaves.info

http://www.today.com

http://alternativefreepress.com

dead-ocean-animals

Fukushima, the Blob and the rise of dead marine life

C OCEAN AFTER DRAINAGE CANAL OVERFLOWS AT FUKUSHIMA NUCLEAR PLANT

The carcasses of three more marine mammals washed up on the shore of of San Francisco beaches July 7, 2015. No one is sure what killed the sea creatures; however, the massive amounts of radiation leaking into the ocean from the Fukushima power plant over the past four years may bear some responsibility.

Joey DeRuy was walking along the beach Monday when he stumbled across a dead sea lion. Unperturbed, he kept walking until he came across an even bigger dead elephant seal just minutes later.

By the end of the day, there were three dead sea creatures lying on San Francisco’s coast: a dolphin, a sea lion pup and an elephant seal.

National Park Service lifeguards tried to dispose of the dolphin, but they weren’t quite sure how to handle the mammal. They lifted the dead dolphin into a truck, but it was so large that its tail was hanging halfway out the truck’s bed.

Alarming rise in dead marine life since Fukushima disaster

This isn’t the first time the Grim Reaper has visited the shores of San Francisco’s coast. Approximately six dead whales have washed onto Bay Area shores within a five-week period this year. In addition, for the past four years, an alarming number of starved sea lion pups have littered Southern California’s shores. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) described these stranding as an “Unusual Mortality Event,” and animal shelters have reached critical capacity.

All of these events just so happen to coincide with the Fukushima disaster four years ago: A tsunami sent ripples throughout the world as it slammed against Japan’s Tohoku coast, destroying three nuclear reactors in all. Since then, untold amounts of radiation have been leaking into the ocean and contaminating sea life.

It’s not exactly news that sea life has been dying off at an exponential rate since the Fukushima disaster. Scientists have been tracking life on the ocean floor 145 miles out from California’s coast for 24 years. According to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, in early March 2012, organic matter from salp, a marine organism, covered less than 1 percent of the ocean floor, but by July 1, 98 percent of the ocean floor was covered with salp detritus. This unprecedented explosion in dead organic matter was the “highest sea-floor coverage by detrital aggregates” in the entire 24-year span of research.

The mainstream media has been suspiciously quiet when it comes to linking these abnormal events to the Fukushima disaster. National Geographic covered the study that reported on the alarming amounts of sea snot, without once mentioning Fukushima as a possible cause for the rise of dead marine life.

Massive warm body of water known as “the Blob” discovered

Sea temperatures have been on the rise in the past few years. In late 2013, a warm body of water known infamously as “the blob” was discovered, stretching 1,000 miles in diameter and 300 feet deep from the Gulf of Alaska to Baja California. The mainstream media has alluded to global warming as the culprit behind the blob.

The problem is that global warming is a gradual process that does not explain how the amount of dead organic matter exploded in just a few short months. The mainstream media has neglected to mention Fukushima as a possible cause for the mysterious blob, which occurred in conjunction with the Fukushima disaster. Something smells fishy other than the fish.

The rise in dead sea life seems removed from the concerns of everyday affairs, especially for people who do not live on the coast. Nevertheless, it is important to recognize that we too are dependent upon the web of nature, and disrupting that web at its most basic level has rippling effects that extend to fish, marine mammals and humans.

Since no federal agency samples Pacific Coast seawater for radiation, a citizen-funded program has been assembled to monitor isotope levels on California’s coast. You can help fund the program by visiting OurRadioactiveOcean.org.

Sources include:

http://www.wired.com

http://ourradioactiveocean.org

http://www.ktvu.com

http://sfist.com

http://beforeitsnews.com

http://www.ktoo.org

http://www.pnas.org

http://www.mostholyfamilymonastery.com

dead-whale-fukushima

Whales continue to die off in Pacific Ocean; scientists suspect Fukushima radiation at fault

C OCEAN AFTER DRAINAGE CANAL OVERFLOWS AT FUKUSHIMA NUCLEAR PLANT

Whales have been dropping like flies in the Gulf of Alaska. Approximately nine whale carcasses were sited in late May and early June. Now, fisherman have spotted five more decomposing whales, a fin whale and four humpbacks, to add to the death toll.

The first two whale deaths reported in May sparked a flurry of attention from government agencies, including the Marine Mammal Stranding Network, Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, NOAA, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

No one knows what caused the death of the whales; however, scientists are narrowing in on the kernel of truth as they weed out possibilities. What scientists do know is that all the whales appear to have died around the same time.

Warmth-induced algae blooms theory debunked

The Gulf of Alaska waters have been warm lately. A working hypothesis was that the whales were dying from domoic acid, which is a toxin produced by warmth-induced algae blooms. This did not seem entirely implausible, since the whales share similar eating habits. Nevertheless, this hypothesis was ruled out after test results taken from a partially decomposing whale fin carcass came back negative.

Samples have only been taken from one whale carcass so far. Researchers are still awaiting the results on two others tests for paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) and cesium-137.

“We do not have conclusive evidence to link their mortality to algal blooms but continue to sample water/plankton/shellfish with a network of folks statewide,” Kate Wynne, a marine mammal specialist investigating the whale deaths, told sources in an email.“Hopefully, by monitoring current conditions and tracking/recording carcasses, we will be quicker to note and respond to a future event if it happens.”

The mainstream media has cited a rise in ocean temperatures and acidity as possible causes of the whale deaths while ignoring the presence of cesium-137, an radioactive isotope with a 30 year half-life released from Fukushima.

Fukushima radiation may be responsible for whale deaths

One possible explanation that has been downplayed by the mainstream media is that the radiation leaking from the Fukushima power plant, including the radioactive isotope cesium-137, has contaminated and warmed the ocean. Scientists predicted that radiation leaking from the power plant should hit North American coasts by early 2014. The rise in whale deaths just so happens to coincide with the Fukushima radiation making landfall on the West Coast.

Some scientists have tried to annul these worries by claiming that the radiation from the Fukushima power plant has become so diluted in the Pacific Ocean that it does not pose a serious health threat to the coast.

Yet the recent rise in whale deaths shows otherwise. In addition, exposure to even small traces of radiation can have an accumulative effect over time. Furthermore, the radiation from the Fukushima power plant has not stopped leaking into the Pacific Ocean. As long as hundred of tons of radiation leak into the ocean everyday, the West Coast will continue to be bombarded with radiation.

Scientist are bamboozled by the mysterious whale deaths. The researchers are still waiting to see whether the results from the whale carcass tests positive for cesium-137. The whale death toll may continue to rise as people discover more of the dead sea creatures.

Sources include:

http://www.cbc.ca

http://globalnews.ca

http://www.newsminer.com

http://www.adn.com

http://www.ktuu.com

nuclear-labor

Melted fuel from Fukushima disaster still missing

C OCEAN AFTER DRAINAGE CANAL OVERFLOWS AT FUKUSHIMA NUCLEAR PLANT

An earthquake triggered a Tsunami that rocked the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on Japan’s Tohoku coast in March 2011, causing the near destruction of three nuclear power plants. It’s been four years since the Fukushima disaster, and experts have yet to pinpoint the location of the melted fuel from the reactors.

Before officials can tackle the challenge of removing the melted fuel, they first have to find out where the nuclear waste is located. The radiation levels at the wreckage are too high for people to investigate. In an effort to find the missing waste, engineers have developed remote control robots to withstand the radiation levels.

Even remote control robots are insufficient to probe the crippled reactors. A robot probe quit working in three hours after it was sent into Fukushima’s No. 1 plant to collect radiation levels. The mission was intended to last ten hours. The probe was designed to withstand high radiation levels. No one knows exactly why the robot stopped working.

The conditions of each reactor vary. Researchers are designing different types of robots to deal with different conditions. For example, the International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning (IRID) and Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy Ltd. are developing a submersible robot to probe the depths of the No. 1 reactor, which has been engulfed by contaminated water.

Tokyo continues to be promoted for 2020 Olympics regardless of sea life contamination

Fukushima is a debacle of massive proportions. Nevertheless, Japan’s Prime Minister Abe Shinzo continues to promote Tokyo as the site for the 2020 summer Olympics. Many have expressed concern about Fukushima, which has contaminated not just the air but the water as well.

In an effort to expose these lies, the journalist Hirose Takashi wrote a letter to young athletes that expressed in simple prose just how bad Fukushima is. As Takashi notes, the nuclear reactor core melted to ground level. The melted fuel is like an acid that burns through and eats everything in its path. It seeps into the ground, turning cool water deep beneath the Earth into the toxic depths of Hell. The groundwater then circulates back into the sea, where it contaminates fish and other sea life. Now, a major source of seafood has become polluted.

Water has been poured into the reactors in an effort to the cool the melted fuel. No one knows how much the melted fuel has cooled. What is known is that the water used to cool the melted fuel is contaminated.

Now, officials face the challenge of storing the water on-site and finding a place for the radioactive waste once it’s recovered. Hopefully, the concept behind nuclear winter theory known as synergism doesn’t apply to Fukushima, which states that when two bad things happen, a third (and unpredictable) bad thing happens that is greater than the sum of the previous events.

Citizens exposed to dangerous levels of radiation

This isn’t the first time the Japanese government has deceived its people about the severity of Fukushima. In April 2014, the government hid a study for six months that estimated radiation levels surrounding the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. The survey investigated private residences, schools, farmland and other living spaces. Radiation doses exceeded the long-term goal of 1 millisievert per year at 24 of 43 sites. These findings were released just two weeks after the government lifted evacuation order No. 1 last April. Many residents are now concerned that they may have been exposed to toxic levels of radiation.

There is currently no road map for how to store the nuclear waste emitting from the plant. The government and TEPCO have a deadline to compile a plan by March 2018. Finding a place to store nuclear waste without posing health concerns to the public is very difficult. People are growing dubious of claims that the plant can be cleaned up in 30 to 40 years. This doesn’t include the hundreds of millions of dollars already spent on cleaning the site and thousands of deaths from the plant’s destruction.

Sources include:

http://the-japan-news.com

https://translate.google.com

http://www.scmp.com

http://ajw.asahi.com

http://www.theguardian.com

http://www.news.com.au

fukushima-plant-outside

Livestock offspring contaminated by Fukushima radiation

C OCEAN AFTER DRAINAGE CANAL OVERFLOWS AT FUKUSHIMA NUCLEAR PLANT

On March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9 earthquake sparked a tsunami off the coast of Japan that left the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in ruins. Thousands of animals were abandoned and exposed to toxic levels of radiation from the power plant. A growing body of empirical studies after the disaster shows that the radiation harmed not just neighboring animals but their offspring conceived after the disaster as well.

When the radioactive material was first released into the air, the Japanese government issued an evacuation notice for residents 30 kilometers around the nuclear power plant. Since then, studies have shown that the radioactive material has caused genetic damage and morphological changes in abandoned animals and their offspring.

Calves contain more radiation than their mothers

A study published in the journal PLOS ONE found that approximately 79 cattle that contained trace amounts of radioactive cesium, silver and tellurium. The radioactive material concentrations were 1.5 times higher in fetuses and calves than in their mothers. The heaviest concentrations of radiation were in the calves’ muscles.

“Calves are known to have excellent metabolism, but it was a surprise to learn that radiation could accumulate so easily,” Tohoku University Prof. Manabu Fukumoto, a contributing author of the study, said to sources. “We have to pinpoint the cause.”

The amount of radiation the cattle were exposed to depended on what and where they ate. Some cattle were fortunate enough to be kept in a pen and fed grass that had not been contaminated by the radiation. Predictably, the researchers found that cattle in the pen were less radioactive than cattle that grazed freely around the nuclear power plant.

Once prized for their high quality beef and milk, abandoned cattle have become tainted. Several cattle were slaughtered by the government in an effort to cover up the disaster. Some farmers, despite government orders and the risk of contamination, have returned to their properties for their abandoned livestock.

Nevertheless, researchers are making use of the cattle that remain. They are now harvesting the sperm and eggs from radioactive cows for in vitro fertilization in order to scan for DNA abnormalities in their off spring.

All wildlife contaminated

Little is known about the long-term health effects of the radioactive material. Studying contaminated animals in the surrounding region can shed light into the long-term health effects the radioactive material may have on people. Although none of the cattle showed physical deformities, the radiation has effected the outward appearance of other animals in the surrounding region.

The radiation has contaminated wildlife from the inside out. For example, pale grass blue butterflies, the most prevalent butterfly in Japan, have significantly shrunk in size. Pale grass blue butterflies that surround the plant are also experiencing slow growth rates and high mortality rates.

To examine the long-term health effects that radiation can have on human health, scientists have also studied the physiological changes in one of our closest living relatives exposed to the radioactive fallout, the Japanese macaque monkeys. The researchers found that the contaminated monkeys had low red and white blood cell levels. Having fewer blood cells makes the monkeys more susceptible to diseases. The researchers attribute these changes to the radiation.

Radiation leaking from the power plant has damaged wildlife and increased mutation rates in reproductive and non-reproductive cells. The long-term effects that this radiation will have on humans remains unknown. Nevertheless, the alarming finding of high radiation levels in calves in comparison to their mothers is sobering.

Sources include:

http://journals.plos.org

https://dearkitty1.wordpress.com

http://www.techtimes.com

fukushima-masks

Fukushima radiation has polluted one-third of the earth

C OCEAN AFTER DRAINAGE CANAL OVERFLOWS AT FUKUSHIMA NUCLEAR PLANT

Radiation from the Fukushima disaster was predicted to reach U.S. coastal waters in early 2014 and peak in 2016. This dire prediction is proving true. Officials announced that the Pacific Ocean, which makes up approximately one-third of the world’s surface area, has been contaminated with radiation by Fukushima.

All of this just so happens to coincide with the rise in dead marine life. Six dead whales washed up on the San Francisco Bay shores within a five-week time period this year. Furthermore, since the Fukushima disaster, an alarming number of starved sea lion pups have plagued the shores of Southern California.

After a tsunami struck the coast of Japan that caused untold amounts of radiation to leak into the Pacific Ocean, as well as shoot up into the atmosphere, in 2011, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) established a project to monitor radiation levels across the Pacific Ocean. The United States made a $400,000 fund for the project; however, nothing much was ever reported on it again.

Radioactive waste from Fukushima found near United States

The IAEA visited the Marshall Islands in July 2014 to help train local officials to sample seawater for radioactive elements. The study should have been conducted years before. Nevertheless, two samples were gathered on filter cartridges. At the time, officials said they planned on monitoring the Marshall Islands for trace amounts of cesium every three months, but so far, none of that data has been reported to the public.

Trace amounts of cesium-134 and cesium-137 were found in samples gathered near Vancouver Island as well, according to a separate study not associated with IAEA. This is the first time radioactive substances in the Pacific Ocean from the Fukushima disaster have been found near the United States.

The experts keep trying to console the masses that the ocean water has diluted the radiation so much that it does not pose an immediate threat to people. West Coast states aren’t buying it, and citizens there have understandably reported being concerned about their safety. Exposure to radiation, even in small amounts, has an accumulative, long-term effect.

Radiation from Fukushima possibly linked to rising sea temperatures

The long-term effects that radiation can have on marine life are becoming manifest in the Pacific Ocean. In 2013, a warm body of water known as “the blob” was discovered in the Pacific Ocean stretching 1,000 miles in diameter and 300 feet.

The mainstream media acknowledges that the blob is likely involved in the sudden rise in marine life stranded on the shores of Southern California. In addition, the blob is tied to California’s drought. Usually, low pressure in the winter contributes to rainfall on California’s coast. The high-pressure air hovering above the blob has deprived California of a major source of rain. Nevertheless, the mainstream media blames global warming as the culprit behind the blob, without once even mentioning the Fukushima disaster as a possible contributing factor.

The problem is that global warming is a gradual process that does not explain the sporadic and exponential rise in sea temperatures within the past few years. Radiation leaking into the Pacific Ocean from the Fukushima power plant could be heating the water as a side effect of radioactive decay. The cesium found near Vancouver Island could give credence to the view that radiation is responsible, at least in part, for the blob.

It is important to remember that Fukushima is a continuous disaster, rather than an isolated debacle that occurred years ago. The core of three nuclear reactors melted, which released and continues to release an unknown amount of radiation into the water.

Since no federal agency samples the Pacific Coast for radiation, it is important that other agencies continue to monitor isotope levels on California’s coast well beyond 2015. The rippling effects of the tsunami may have subsided in the water, but they will be felt by future generations to come.

Sources include:

http://www.marshallislandsjournal.com

http://vienna.usmission.gov

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com

http://www.naturalnews.com

http://www.neonnettle.com

mutant-daisy

Deformed daisies found growing near Fukushima Nuclear Plant, showing extent of genetic damage from radiation

C OCEAN AFTER DRAINAGE CANAL OVERFLOWS AT FUKUSHIMA NUCLEAR PLANT

Pictures of alluring roses and daisies flourish on Facebook and Twitter. In May and June of 2015, however, a Japanese citizen posted pictures of daisies on Twitter that went viral for reasons other than their aesthetic appeal.

An amateur photographer who goes by the handle @san_kaido posted pictures of mutated yellow daises in Nasushiobara City, which is 70 miles away from Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant meltdown. One daisy had split stems that had two flowers connected to each other; another daisy had four stems that grew up to be tied to one another. And some daisies had petals growing out of the side of the flower. The effects that Fukushima radiation can have on plant life is clearly manifest in these picture.

Radioactive waste taints fruits and vegetables by the roots

Even though the Nukushima meltdown occurred more than four years ago and 70 miles away from Nasushiobara City, the radiation was still able to taint the daisies by the roots. The tsunami that slammed the coast of Japan claimed the lives of approximately 18,500 people. Radiation has not been reported to be a cause of any of those deaths; however, high levels of radiation have been found in groundwater near the plant, which can cause abnormalities in fruits, vegetables and, if consumed, people.

Daisies may be particularly susceptible to the radiation from the Fukushima meltdown. This isn’t the first time that mutated plants have been found after the disaster, however. In 2013, the Daily Mail posted pictures of mutated fruits and vegetables tainted by toxic groundwater from the Fukushima plant.

The pictures compared mutated fruits and vegetables to their natural counterparts. The photographs reveal four oranges joined to one stem, a cabbage four times larger than its normal size and a tomato covered in tumors, among other mutated fruits and vegetables.

Groundwater contaminated by radiation extends to marine life as well. Nearly 300 tons of radioactive water has been leaking into the Pacific Ocean everyday, which is enough to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool. Groundwater from hills behind the Fukushima plant has been used and disposed into the Pacific Ocean in an effort to keep the nuclear reactors cool. Local fishermen have opposed the decision to pour radioactive water into the ocean.

Cesium released from plant will contaminate sea life for decades

In 2013, the company Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), the operator of the Fukushima power plant, caught a fish near the Fukushima site that had 2,500 times the legal safe radiation limit for seafood. TEPCO has a history of denying and covering up the amount of radioactive material released into the ocean, atmosphere and groundwater. It’s hard to say how much radioactive material the power plant has really released. The radiation levels in other fish caught off the coast of Fukushima haven’t lowered much since the disaster.

Scientists fear that cesium, a toxic radioactive element produced by nuclear fission, has accumulated on the seafloor near the power plant. Cesium has many isotopes with different half-lives. A half-life is the amount of time it takes half of the radioactive nuclei in a substance to decay. Cesium-134, for example, has a half-life of just over two years, whereas cesium-137 has a half-life of over 30 years. The cesium-137 leaking from the reactors will threaten fisheries for decades.

The contamination appears to be spreading. Radioactive cesium has contaminated sea life, as well as fruits and vegetables on Fukushima farms. The mutated daisies suggest that radioactive waste is still contaminating plants, and likely animals too, miles inland from the Fukushima site.

Sources include:

http://happyplace.someecards.com

http://www.dailymail.co.uk

http://www.naturalnews.com

http://rt.com

http://rt.com

fukushima-control-room

Environmental scientist predicts 95% chance that another earthquake will hit Fukushima, causing total extinction of Pacific and West Coast

C OCEAN AFTER DRAINAGE CANAL OVERFLOWS AT FUKUSHIMA NUCLEAR PLANT

Award-winning scientist and environmental activist David Suzuki issued an ominous warning about Japan’s Fukushima plant, saying another big quake would decimate Japan and affect the entire West Coast of North America.

In 2011, a magnitude-9 earthquake sparked a tsunami that laid waste to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, destroying three nuclear reactors in all and severely damaging a fourth reactor.

“Fukushima is the most terrifying situation that I can imagine,” Suzuki said at 2013 symposium on water ecology at the University of Alberta in Canada. “The fourth [reactor] has been so badly damaged that the fear is if there’s another earthquake of a 7 or above then that building will go and all hell breaks loose,” he said, adding that a magnitude-7 earthquake or greater is more than 95 percent likely to occur within the next three years.

Scientists predict when and where earthquakes may occur by the movement of plates in the earth and the location of fault zones. In addition, scientists can also try to predict when earthquakes may occur by looking at the history of earthquakes in a region, and where pressure is building along fault lines.

Reactor 4 a threat in more ways than one

Fortunately, engineers were able to remove the remaining 1,535 fuel rods from reactor number four late last year. The fuel rods were placed into dry casks, lowered to ground level and transported to a nearby storage site.

The operation carried several risks. Suzuki said that the Japanese government was too proud to seek international help in cleaning up the fourth reactor. Officials faced the daunting challenge of removing and transporting thousands of nuclear rods from Reactor 4 one by one. If two rods collided, then they would have released a massive amount of radiation. And if another tsunami happened to coincide with the cleanup, the results would have been devastating.

“I have seen a paper which says that if in fact the fourth plant goes under in an earthquake and those rods are exposed, it’s bye-bye Japan and everybody on the West Coast of North America should evacuated,” Suzuki stated. “If that isn’t terrifying, I don’t know what is.”

In an effort to prevent radioactive material from contaminating the groundwater and flowing into the ocean, TEPCO, the operator of the Fukushima station, has attempted to freeze the soil around the reactors. Suzuki claimed that TEPCO has been “lying through its teeth” about the extent of the radioactive leaks from the nuclear reactors and described the ice wall scheme as “cockamany.” The operation began last March.

A devastating earthquake likely to hit Japan before Fukushima cleanup is over

Suzuki has been criticized by the media about his credentials as a scientist. Despite these criticisms, many other scientists share Suzuki’s fears. Japan is subjected to devastating earthquakes approximately every 60 years. In addition, Japanese scientists announced in 2012 that there is a 70 percent chance of another devastating earthquake hitting Japan within the next 30 years. Furthermore, Dr. Masaaki Kimura, a seismologist who is reported to have predicted the 2011 earthquake, predicts that another major earthquake will strike Japan by 2017.

Suzuki’s prediction has yet to come to fruition; however, that does not mean that Japan is out of the woods, let alone water. The real threat stems from the melted radioactive fuel in Reactors 1, 2 and 3. Officials must keep the radiation cool; otherwise, it escapes and ensues another disaster. Optimistic estimates predict that it will take up to 40 years to clean up the power plant, which is more than enough time for a devastating earthquake to lay waste to Japan’s coast again and again.

Sources include:

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca

http://en.rocketnews24.com

http://www.telegraph.co.uk

http://rt.com

http://www.economist.com

http://www.redflagnews.com

http://america.aljazeera.com

http://www.theguardian.com

http://www.japantoday.com

http://www.onenewspage.com

BN-HN033_fukush_G_20150320002620

Fukushima Watch: Images Confirm Meltdown

C OCEAN AFTER DRAINAGE CANAL OVERFLOWS AT FUKUSHIMA NUCLEAR PLANT

Tokyo Electric Power Co.9501.TO -2.78% said it has confirmed for the first time that the No. 1 reactor at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant melted down during the devastating accident four years ago.

Tepco said Thursday that x-ray-like images taken inside the reactor showed that nearly all of the nuclear fuel had melted down, and nothing could be seen where the fuel rods should be. The findings were largely expected.

To read more, goto : http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2015/03/20/fukushima-watch-images-confirm-meltdown/?mod=japanblog

 

1019334720

Lessons From Fukushima Unheeded by Safety Regulators in Europe – Greenpeace

C OCEAN AFTER DRAINAGE CANAL OVERFLOWS AT FUKUSHIMA NUCLEAR PLANT

The European Union’s nuclear industry has failed to draw lessons from the Fukushima plant disaster and adopt safety measures, environmental advocacy group Greenpeace said Monday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – In March 2011, several reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan suffered a meltdown as a result of a powerful earthquake and a subsequent tsunami. Hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated from the area due to a major leak of nuclear matter.